The one missing piece of the housing recovery puzzle finally seems to be coming back into play…
Home prices and sales volume is headed up. Housing inventory and marketing time has dropped in many areas. Home buyer and builder confidence has improved, but until now lack of access to mortgages has continued to hold back some investors and buyers and in turn real estate investing volume.
However, the stars finally seem to be aligning to change this and make home loans easier to come by.
A recent report from Bloomberg News and Moody’s shows even home equity loans are bouncing back, which is a monumental step in the right direction, confirming improvements in home values and confidence among mortgage lenders. Home equity loan volume has already jumped 30% this year and is predicted to do the same in 2013, hitting $104 billion.
This is incredible news for those in real estate investing. It signals changes which will give homeowners more confidence and buying power, spur consumer spending and lift the overall economy, creating jobs and boosting the housing market.
In terms of direct access to more working capital for real estate investing, hard money lenders are making a renewed push into the market again, advertising their services and encouraging investors to borrow from them again.
On top of this the government says it now recognizes the mortgage market has over corrected itself and is holding back growth, which hopefully means they will eventually change policies to allow for a loosening in mortgage credit.
Meanwhile major banks have been adding thousands of employees to mortgage origination and servicing departments to keep up with increasing demand, a sign they do plan to make it easier for more individuals to get home loans.
However, the real estate investing community should be on the lookout for rising rates as more studies and media outlets suggest this may be the answer for improvement as low interest rates have not done the job.
